Chick-fil-A plans to remain a family-owned company even as sales climb and new markets open, CEO Andrew Cathy told CNBC, rejecting the public-market path rivals chase.
Andrew Cathy sat down in downtown Manhattan before a Shared Table hunger-relief activation and made the company’s posture plain: strong results, careful expansion, and no rush toward Wall Street. The Atlanta-based chicken chain is treating private ownership as a strategic advantage, not a temporary stage.
CNBC reported that Cathy, who succeeded his father Dan Cathy nearly five years ago, framed the choice as long-term stewardship rather than quarter-to-quarter pressure. Franchise disclosures cited in that coverage show 2025 company revenue rose 14% to $10.3 billion, net income edged up 1% to $1.05 billion, and roughly 3,000 locations produced $23.92 billion in system sales.
“This has been a good year,” Cathy said. “Our operators have done such a good job executing on the fundamentals and adding the hospitality to it.”
Those numbers put Chick-fil-A as the third-largest U.S. restaurant company by sales, behind only McDonald’s and Starbucks, while many restaurant stocks have struggled. The chain opened 179 restaurants last year and is working a $1 billion international push that already includes Canada, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Sundays stay closed. The ownership model stays family.
Cathy tied the company’s calm to its structure. Public rivals answer to earnings calendars. Chick-fil-A answers to a multi-decade plan.
"We're able to plan for the quarter century, and we don't have to plan for the quarter."
He reached for a race-car image to explain the balance between roots and change.
"I look at driving this business like driving a race car, there's a reason that the windshield's bigger than the rearview mirror."
“It's important for the rear view to be grounded on where you are, and there are things that we think about our purpose, our mission, that won't change, but everything else we have to be able to evolve and change,” he added.
That stance lands against a sector that has leaned hard on IPOs, outside capital, and rapid unit growth. Jersey Mike’s shares have fallen nearly 28% since its July IPO. Inspire Brands, owner of Dunkin’, has been described as unlikely to go public this year unless sector performance improves. Cathy’s message was the opposite bet: keep control, grow on purpose, and protect the brand’s pace.
Competitors are pouring money into voice AI and scripted “hospitality” campaigns. McDonald’s has said it will test Archy voice ordering in English and Spanish and has launched “Make It Golden” training aimed at food quality and guest experience. Starbucks bought around 200,000 Sharpie markers so baristas could write on cups. Burger King rebranded restaurant managers as “Your Way Champions.”
Cathy drew a hard line on one piece of that tech wave. Chick-fil-A is exploring AI behind the scenes, he said, but it will not replace the drive-thru greeting with a machine voice.
"From our experience, we really want that hospitality to be human to human."
“We're not gonna substitute that interaction with technology, because we feel like that hospitality is so important to create that warm environment for consumers,” he said.
He still talks about future delivery tools, including drones, as industry possibilities. The point is sequence: tools can support the guest; they do not become the guest relationship. In a market racing to automate the counter, Chick-fil-A is treating the person at the window as the product.
Cathy also rejected menu sprawl. The chain wants items customers can get only at Chick-fil-A, not a copy of every rival’s board.
"We're very careful about what we want to do, because we want to keep it really focused on unique Chick-fil-A items that they can only get at Chick-fil-A."
“But we do want to bring in new flavors and profiles, and that's what we'll do with a lot of our seasonal items that we do, and we learn a lot from our customers about trying those things,” he said. Limited-time offers do the testing. The core sandwich identity stays put.
That discipline matters in the chicken fight that heated up after Popeyes launched its sandwich in 2019. Barclays figures cited in the coverage put Chick-fil-A at roughly 43% of U.S. chicken-chain market share as of 2024, with Popeyes far back near 11%. McDonald’s is preparing hand-breaded chicken strips and sandwiches of its own. Cathy called the rivalry a gift, not a threat.
"I'm grateful that there's competition in the chicken space, because that means we're in a good space to be."
“Competition just makes us better.... What little details can we do to make that environment even more welcoming for customers?” he said.
For more than a decade Chick-fil-A led fast food in the American Customer Satisfaction Index. In the 2026 study, Jersey Mike’s moved ahead. Chick-fil-A’s own score did not fall year over year; the ranking did. Cathy’s answer was not a rebrand circus. It was more of the same: operators, fundamentals, and the small welcome details that built the lead in the first place.
Growth remains “calculated” and “conservative” in his telling, new units, yes; reckless sprawl, no. International expansion is real money, $1 billion on the plan, but still framed as an extension of the same operating culture rather than a sprint for headlines.
Cathy pointed past the chicken sandwich to a small venture arm created in 2017: Red Wagon Ventures, named for the red wagon his grandfather S. Truett Cathy used as a boy selling Coca-Cola. The unit incubates ideas that may or may not become the next core business.
Projects already on the board include Daybright, a beverage-focused concept with coffees, smoothies, juices, and doughnuts and no chicken sandwiches or waffle fries; Little Blue Menu, an experimental format mixing Chick-fil-A items with burgers, pizza, and onion rings, with its final location set to convert back to a traditional Chick-fil-A next year; and Acrew Home Professionals, a home repair and maintenance business launched last year and marketed around “service with a smile.” The venture team is small. Cathy said the lion’s share of time still goes to making Chick-fil-A better.
"The lion's share of our time and effort is continuing to make sure that we're getting better and better at Chick-fil-A, but we do have a small team that's working and incubating some of these new ideas and thinking about what could be some things that could help us grow into the future."
He tied that work to family-business logic, not conglomerate fashion.
"I think from a family business standpoint, we've got to build off of our core competencies and look at other types of things that we can get into, so we can continue to serve customers in unique ways."
The family story still anchors the pitch. Truett Cathy founded the company, stayed entrepreneurial into old age, opened a Hawaiian-themed concept called Truett’s Luau at 92 in the same month he handed the reins to his son, and died at 93. Andrew Cathy invoked that record directly.
"My grandfather was entrepreneurial to the core. He died at 93, and he opened a new business at 92 years old that he created himself."
Eighty years in, the chain is still arguing that ownership structure, Sunday closure, and human hospitality are operating choices with commercial results, not branding props. Revenue is up. System sales are massive. Market share in chicken remains dominant. The CEO says the windshield matters more than the rearview, and the family is keeping both hands on the wheel.
In an industry hooked on IPOs, voice bots, and menu bloat, Chick-fil-A is proving a simpler model still wins: own the company, serve the customer in person, and grow only as fast as the culture can carry.